Adrien Agreste is a Keeper
by writeringoodfaith
Summary: HP/MLB AU: After watching Kagami Tsurugi elegantly throw quaffles for Ravenclaw against Adrien Agreste's keeping skills, Alya and Marinette hatch a harebrained scheme for Marinette to get closer to Adrien using quidditch. (Companion piece to The Ladybug Patronus!)
1. Scheming

_**Author's Note:** This fic is set in the same universe as The Ladybug Patronus and A Miraculous Hogwarts Origins Story. You can read it in any order. It all fits together!_

* * *

'And for the third time in as many minutes, only Adrien Agreste stands between Kagami Tsurugi and another ten points to Ravenclaw!' Nino called out into the crowd.

The match had just started but it seemed so intense! The seekers flying willy nilly in search of the snitch, beaters tailgating their players to defend them from bludgers, chasers diving in formation and peeling away to score and Adrien Agreste, decked out in Hufflepuff quidditch robes AND keeper protective gear looking unfairly attractive in the midst of it all. Marinette watched on tenterhooks as Kagami - who looked so at ease with the broom - every movement so precise, threw the quaffle towards the left hoop and cheered a little too loudly when Adrien managed to perform a somersault mid-air to knock the quaffle back into field, a Hufflepuff Marinette didn't recognise catching the ball and rushing it along to the opposite side of the field.

'He deflects it! Amazing keeping skills from Adrien Agreste!' Nino called out into the crowd.

Her jaw may have dropped a little at the acrobatics.

Alya took a break from her rapid scribbling of notes and gameplay to shut Marinette's gaping mouth.

'Tsurugi vs Agreste: it's like the showdown of the year,' continued Nino's commentary into the crowd.

'He's right!' said Alya to Marinette. 'I've gotta take notes so Gryffindor can strategize against them next match.'

'Adrien is an amazing quidditch player,' replied Marinette dreamily.

'Have you ever even been to a quidditch game before Marinette?' muttered Alya between plays.

'Yes!' yelled Marinette indignantly over the Hufflepuff cheers as Adrien fended off another quaffle from a Ravenclaw Marinette was pretty sure wasn't Kagami. Eep they moved so fast though. 'I went to your first game,' she said defensively, and the Hufflepuffs nearby groaned as one of their chasers got whacked by a bludger.

'You brought a book!' said Alya accusingly as she laughed.

'And I tore my eyes away to watch you play,' said Marinette. 'That's true love.'

'Speaking of love,' began Alya. Marinette did not like where this was going. Alya cupped her hand around Marinette's ear, 'So your sudden interest in quidditch isn't anything to do with a certain blonde haired keeper, is it?'

Marinette blushed, groaning as she brought the edge of her robe up to hide her face.

'You're the worst.'

'Nah, I'm the best!'

'How even so?'

'Kim got into an accident over the holidays and hasn't been medically cleared to play the next game.'

'So?' asked Marinette.

'So,' repeated Alya, 'Slytherin is down a chaser.'

Marinette's eyes lit up. In her mind, she was wearing quidditch robes, soaring across the pitch, Adrien's eyes locked with hers in a battle of equals as she threw the quaffle. Adrien's eyes mesmerised by her mad quidditch moves. She giggled. 'Yes, Alya! Help me join the team!'

But in response Alya only raised an eyebrow. 'You know Slytherin's next match is against Gryffindor, right?'

Marinette shook her head, smile undimmed.

'I can't help you, Marinette! My team would kill me!'

A concerned expression struck Marinette's face. 'But-'

Alya cut off her, holding her by the chin and pointing it towards the Hufflepuff goalposts. 'Ask lover boy to help!'

'Eep!' said Marinette, turning away. 'But I'll be going against him too someday.'

Alya chuckled. 'He's a softie. He won't say no to you.'

Marinette looked out onto the pitch, Kagami had a quaffle again and with a feint managed to score it in one of the hoops that Adrien was not protecting. The Ravenclaws went wild but she saw Adrien's rueful grin from his goalpost. The game ended soon after with the Hufflepuff catching the snitch and winning the game, despite Ravenclaw's previous lead of 100 to 50 prior. She watched the seven players land and shake hands. And was it her imagination or did Kagami and Adrien's hand linger a little longer when they touched?! He seemed to be congratulating her on getting goals past him. She watched him mime her feint and both of them laugh.

'Earth to Marinette!' Alya called out, waving her hand in front of her friend's face.

Marinette turned to Alya, determination shining in her eyes. 'I'll do it!'


	2. Asking

'I can't do it.'

Marinette's declaration was shhh'd by Madame Pince who was walking by the study tables in the quiet area of the library.

Alya glared at her in response.

Marinette withered under her friend's glare. But her attention was diverted when Alya caught sight of the subject of their whispered conversations themselves entering the library. With Alya nodding furiously at her, Marinette got up to follow him. He was walking through the defence against the dark arts section of the library and she was about to call his name to make him turn around when that Ravenclaw chaser - Kagami - turned around the other corner and struck up a conversation with him.

She looked back at Alya who gestured for her to keep going, so she ducked into the aisle of books in front of them and gestured for Alya to come and give her moral support. She couldn't hear her friend's sigh as Alya left her books behind to join her but she knew Alya and she knew it was there. Together, they slowly crept closer to where Adrien and Kagami were talking to try and eavesdrop on their conversation.

They caught the tail end of it, Adrien's cheerful, 'Until next time, Kagami!' and ducked as Adrien picked up a book eye level from where they were spying, waiting for him to walk off. When Marinette gathered the courage to stand again, she could see that Kagami had her hands pressed to her face which glowed an embarrassed pink.

Alya too got up to look surreptitiously look at Kagami through the shelves, their mission of spying on Adrien an officially lost cause and surmised Marinette's worst fears in her bleak assessment of the situation, 'That girl is out to steal your man.'

Marinette sunk back to the ground, a silent 'Noooooooo' escaping from her lips. Kagami was so cool! She was so athletic, and so good at quidditch. How could she ever hope to match her?

* * *

Fridays were Marinette's favourite day of the week. Mostly because of an appointment between 8 - 9:30 PM every Friday night, highlighted in her calendar with pink love hearts. The event? Prefect patrol with Adrien.

It had been a great opportunity to try and properly befriend Adrien. And she usually made it through conversations without stammering anymore, constant exposure to his perfect face had helped. They usually began patrol marking out separate routes dividing part of the castle by the parts closest to their common rooms. From about 9:00 PM they met up and together sent off any stragglers to bed, making sure to stop at the Owlery and the Astronomy Tower and other various infamous places Hogwarts students thought they could get away with on a Friday night.

It was during this time that they got to talk. Usually reflecting on their week together. Marinette loved hearing Adrien's enthusiasm for Hogwarts, it made her feel like a first-year, blinking up at awe at the enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall all over again.

She knew if she was going to bring up asking him to help her practice quidditch so she could make the Slytherin team and replace Kim as chaser, during patrol would be the best moment to ask him.

She was wondering how to turn the conversation subtly to quidditch when Adrien mentioned Kagami, asking if he knew anything about her.

'Well,' replied Marinette, 'I saw your match against her! She looks like an amazing quidditch player.'

Adrien nodded in response. 'I didn't realise it until she caught up with me a few days ago, but our families actually know each other! It had been many years, so I didn't recognise her at first but we have been to events together in the past. I've been meaning to ask Father about her family.'

Marinette's heart hurt, learning that Kagami now had another reason to be closer to Adrien. Old family friends. What are the odds? Probably higher in a pureblood world. But Adrien wasn't like that.

'Umm,' began Marinette, and Adrien slowed his walking pace down, turning to face her and smile fondly at her. 'I was wondering if I could ask you for a favour.'

'You were one of my first friends at Hogwarts, Marinette! Of course, what can I do for you?'

Marinette thought if she knew he'd be so willing to do her a favour she should've used this opportunity to ask her to date him. Or to ban him from loving Kagami. Or to seal his lips to hers in an embrace lasting for eternity…

'Marinette?' Adrien was waving his hand in front of her face and she snapped out of her ridiculous daydream. People were having to do that a lot for her recently.

She spoke really fast. 'So, I heard Kim - he's in our year, a Slytherin chaser - was involved in an accident in the summer and he's still injured and uh hasn't been cleared by Madame Pomfrey to play in the upcoming Gryffindor and Slytherin game,' she took a breath and continued, 'and I was wondering, since you were super good at quidditch and I've never really played quidditch before I mean we had our first lesson and the broom came UP, but then I tripped over it and I uh - I support Alya and I suppose what I'm trying to say is: will you help me train so that I can make the Slytherin quidditch team?!'

He blinked in response to the onslaught of her words, then smiled again at her. 'Sure?'

'Really?' yelped Marinette, jumping in the air and clutching her hands together in excitement.

'Yeah, of course!' he was enthusiastic now. 'I'd love to help you practice quidditch so you can make the team.'

'Alright!' said Marinette. She hastily took out her schedule from her satchel. 'When are you free?'

* * *

_**Author's note: **Hi calerose! The patrol scene is for you. _


	3. Training

Quidditch was _hard_. It was so, so violent. Her aim was good, once she managed to get off the ground smoothly (that was an entire lesson in itself) and the first time she had chucked a ball into a hoop, passing right by Adrien's unsuspecting face she had giggled at his delayed reaction and he called her a natural!

The more difficult parts were remembering to be aware of her surroundings so she could avoid bludgers.

To her complete and utter surprise, Adrien had a completely horrible sense of humour that really came out when they were playing quidditch. When he first told her to slyther-into the correct position she almost choked with how bad it was. The puns continued as he started to teach her tricks on the broomstick e.g. how to fly with no hands (very important skill for a chaser who was often reaching or already holding the quaffle) - 'if say Rose,' he named a chaser on the Hufflepuff team, 'got hold of the quaffle you've got to chaser across the field Marinette, and that means no hands!' he paused after the punch line and when she groaned to let him know that she got the joke he grinned happily in response.

She loved spending this time with him, sweat glistening in his blonde hair and vivid green eyes brightened by the exercise. He seemed really happy while playing quidditch (or maybe, a little part of her whispered hopefully, maybe he was really happy spending all of this extra time with her!).

Her love for Adrien was more than just physical attraction. After all, he was a model and probably had plenty of people he didn't know professing their love and admiration of his physique on the daily. Adrien was really sweet to her, and really kind. When his team asked him why he was helping her, someone in another house, train for quidditch he had shrugged and said that she was training him too. In fact, she reckoned she could pinpoint the start of her attraction to him to his extraordinary kindness. After snubbing him on his first day of school due to a misunderstanding, he handed her his umbrella after their first prefect meeting outside the greenhouse and got wet while she was still processing his peace offering. Adrien always put others before himself. He was just really incredible. Even if he had a terrible sense of humour - he had held her hand over her broomstick to correct its positioning for an aerial tumble and brought back the slytherin joke. When she retorted - 'Slither your own hands into position, Adrien!' he cackled in delight.

At the end of the practice session, she helped trap the remaining oncoming bludger and wrestle it back into its case while he did the clasps for the quaffle. With each holding one side of the case, they carried the quidditch balls back to the store room.

He started to remove his keeper headgear as they walked together towards the change rooms. 'Great job today, Marinette! Your aim is so good I almost wound up in snitches.'

She rolled her eyes at him. 'If my aim was so good, the quaffle would clear you every single time and fly right into the hoops.'

He laughed, then said sincerely, 'You've come so far in only a few weeks. I'm really proud of my little protege.'

'Really, thank you Adrien. I feel totally prepared for the tryouts tomorrow!'

'You should,' he readily agreed.

'Are you still planning on coming to watch?'

They stopped at the separation between the gendered change rooms.

'I wouldn't miss the debut of Marinette Dupain-Cheng, world renowned chaser for nothing!' he swept into a ridiculous bow and though she rolled her eyes at his antics, the corners of her mouth tugged upwards into a smile.

'Thanks again, Adrien.' She reached up and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing into the change rooms.

If she'd chanced to look behind her, she might have noticed a spacey look on his face as his eyes followed her into the change room. She may have recognised the expression from his most recent interview when he detailed how a girl with an amazing patronus saved his life last summer. But she didn't look back, and she didn't see. Only the tall quidditch posts on the other end of the field stood witness to the tips of Adrien Agreste's ears going red because of a girl.

* * *

In potions the next day, Adrien approached her with a concerned look on his face.

'Hey Marinette, you haven't been your cheerful self today. I hope you're not worried about tryouts later this afternoon because you have no reason to be!'

She frowned then shook her head. 'That's not it. I was going to tell you after class. I just found out that tryouts have been cancelled.'

'What?' he echoed.

'Yeah. Kim got medical clearance to play again, and no-one was in seventh year last year so they've still got the whole team together so they decided to cancel tryouts.'

'I can't believe they'd do that!'

'I'm really disappointed,' admitted Marinette in a small voice. 'My house kind of plays by its own rules sometimes.'

'You really got the short end of the broomstick.' He said sadly. He reached over to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder. When she looked up at him, she realised that he looked absolutely crestfallen. Like all the sunshine in his soul had been sucked out of him.

'Maybe next year?' ventured Marinette.

He nodded then made an exclamation of frustration. 'This is so unfair! I'm so upset for you. You worked so hard.' He reached over to embrace her and she stiffened in surprise. 'You're right, next year,' he quietly spoke in his ear. 'You're amazing, Marinette. I really think you'll make a great quidditch player.'

'Th-tha-thank yo-ou for ca-caring about me,' with horror Marinette realised her stutter was back. It was the close proximity probably. Why was he being so affectionate? Is hugging a purely platonic thing in France?!

'I enjoyed spending time with you,' continued Adrien.

Marinette's heart stopped in her chest. Was this it? Did he know she only got into quidditch to get closer to him? Her cheeks went that tell-tale red. Was she that obvious? Had he caught onto her feelings? HAD SHE BEEN EXPOSED BY NINO?

Adrien then said, 'You're a very good friend.'

All of the panic building inside of her was expelled out of her body with that one sentence. She laughed awkwardly, then exclaimed as she noticed his potion in front of her was starting to overflow.

He smiled at her one more time - his usual gentle smile for her marred by furrowed eyebrows of concern and went back to attending to his cauldron with Nino.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was still just a friend. A very good friend. Later, when she was relaying to Alya what happened during their own prefect patrol she did end up laughing and crying.

'There should be a word for that emotion,' said Marinette, sniffling into a tissue. 'The one that makes you laugh and cry at the same time.'

'There is!' declared Alya in a sing-song voice. 'It's called _love_.'

Marinette made a dismissive motion with her hand but Alya wasn't done yet.

'Well, at least all those practice quidditch sessions was able to confirm one thing at least.'

'Yeah, what's that?' replied Marinette blowing her nose into the already abused tissue.

Alya grinned, 'Adrien Agreste is a keeper.'

Marinette's sniffles gave way to a groan. 'Don't ever make that joke out loud in front of him, Alya. He would love it way too much.' Oh, the things this boy put her through.

* * *

_**Author's Note**: So, back to the status quo! It's ok. Not every addition to my little HP/MLB universe is gonna change the world. I was on such a roll last night, I've actually got another idea for a fic involving a love potion (because if Marinette was in Hogwarts, honestly, how could she resist?). Stay tuned! And tell me more about what you want to see! If I can catch your vision it might appear in a fic._


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